


Soulmates & Cell Phones

by afteriwake



Category: Black Panther (2018), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Background Jane Foster/Thor, Bisexual Bucky Barnes, Broken Cell Phone, Bucky Barnes & Shuri Friendship, Cell Phones, Conversations, F/M, Friendly Bucky Barnes, Friendly Jane Foster, Jewish Bucky Barnes, Jewish Darcy Lewis, POV Bucky Barnes, Phone Calls & Telephones, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Stark Tower
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:08:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22229944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: Bucky Barnes meets his soulmate outside Stark Tower.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Shuri, James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis, Jane Foster & Darcy Lewis
Comments: 24
Kudos: 325
Collections: Sherlolly Secret Santa: 2019





	Soulmates & Cell Phones

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Juldooz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Juldooz/gifts).



> This is a mod gift for **Juldooz** for the 2019 round of Sherlolly Secret Santa. They had Bucky/Darcy as a favorite non-Sherlock ship and said they liked soulmate AUs, so I used the prompt " _Because the universe is sadistic af, it only gave you the first letter of your soulmate’s name_ " for this fic.

D.

He had stopped looking at the damn tattoo on his arm long before Hydra had gotten their hands on him, knowing how many Debs and Donnas there were in Brooklyn when he was a kid. A D for a letter was nothing special. Steve, at least, had an N for his, and aside from a handful of Nancys in the area, there weren’t many people whose names started with N. Or at least it didn’t feel like it.

But now...well, now that his brain was sorted, the snap had been averted and Stark was having everyone check in on each other more often in the newly expanded superhero community, he was wondering if his D would be for some random civilian he helped save or someone who could actually deal with the weirdness that was his life.

After all, he was a centenarian who looked like he was in his thirties. If they could get past that, then they could stay. If not...well, soulmates weren’t that big a deal anyway, right?

Then he’d glance at Steve and Natasha, who were as close as peas in a pod, and know it was a big deal.

So much had happened since he’d gotten his brain fixed in Wakanda. There had been the fight with Thanos, which Thor had finished by using the axe of his and chopping off the gauntlet and then putting it on and snapping away the invading army, at the cost of his arm. Then there was the scare with the Mysterio guy using intel from SHIELD to pretend to be an ally but then turned on all of them. Some heroes like Parker had their identities revealed to the public at large, and it took a blow to all of them.

Him, personally, he didn’t care; he’d still felt he should pay for the debts he’d incurred as the Winter Soldier, whether he’d done the things while being brainwashed or not. But after the mess with Thanos, Steve and Tony had made their peace, and both vouched for Steve being his parole officer, of a sort, and making sure he stayed on the good guys' side. So no going back to Wakanda, much to Shuri’s disappointment. But New York...it was good to be home, he guessed.

“Have you found her yet?” Shuri asked on her side of the phone conversation. During his time in Wakanda, they had talked. Shuri was one of the few people he had met that didn’t have a soulmate tattoo in any known Earth language, so it had been a topic of conversation between them. Her mother had embraced him as a lost child of sorts, and so while he had lived alone with his goats for the most part, technically he was welcome at the palace any time he wanted. Right now, Shuri was bored, so he had been speaking to Ramonda about having her come to New York for a bit, and the Queen had agreed. So now he and Shuri were planning their time when she first arrived.

“How are you so sure my soulmate is a she?” he asked, amused. He’d been attracted to guys back in the day before it all got shoved down in Winter Soldier programming, but he’d always seemed to prefer women, and he was sure he’d told her that before.

“Because you deserve someone soft.”

“Men can’t be soft? Shuri, take a look at your brother around Nakia. He turns into a pile of goo.”

Shuri chuckled. “That is not what I mean, White Wolf. Men are hard. Even you are hard. Women are soft. And you deserve someone soft after all you have been through. Therefore, I am certain your soulmate is a woman.”

Whatever he was going to say next was cut off by a slew of Hebrew curses to his left as he got to the doors of Stark Tower. He turned and saw two women standing there, one with shoulder-length brown hair and a brown jacket and jeans, and the one cursing in Hebrew was looking at a phone in her hands. He grinned slightly at that. It had been a long time since he’d heard some good Jewish curses, which reminded him he should go to the synagogue soon.

“I broke my phone,” she said, looking up. Her hair was a long mess of curls, topped off with a cat-eared beanie, and she wore glasses and an all-black outfit: black turtleneck, black leather jacket, black skirt, black tights, black flats. And he damn near dropped his own phone when he felt a searing pain on his wrist where his D tattoo was, and when he looked down there was a name, slowly fading: Darcy.

“Hey, Shuri? I ever tell you you’re damn near psychic?” he said, putting his phone back to his ear.

“You just met her?”

“Yeah, I did. And I’ve got to go apologize for a broken phone, I think. Talk to you later, okay?”

“Make sure to tell me _everything._ ”

“Will do.” He hung up and made his way to the two women. “Are you Darcy?” he asked as he pocketed his phone.

“I am, and this is your fault,” Darcy said. “I was looking over at you and my damn wrist started to hurt and I dropped my phone. You're my soulmate, aren’t you. James?”

He nodded. “James Buchanan Barnes. Also known as Bucky.”

“Darcy Lewis,” she said sourly. “I liked this phone, too. I just got it all set up for me.”

“Well, I’m sure we can fix it,” her companion said with a wide smile. “Jane Foster.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said, reaching over to shake her hand. “And I’m sure we can too. Looks like we just need to replace the screen, and I’m sure Stark can do that if he’s not in the middle of making stuff for his kid. If you ask nicely, maybe he’ll even improve it.”

“Or we can ask Thor to get it upgraded to Asgardian tech,” Jane said.

“You know Thor?” he asked, surprised.

“The big guy? Yeah. Jane is his on-again, off-again girlfriend,” Darcy said. “On again, currently.”

“And on that note, I need to get inside to meet him for lunch,” Jane said a small gleam in her eyes. “I shouldn’t wait up, should I?”

“I’d say call me when you’re done, but...” Darcy held up the broken phone.

“If Thor is staying here at the Tower, I’m two floors below. I can make us something while we wait for your phone to get looked at.” Bucky gave Darcy a grin and was surprised to see Darcy blush slightly. He had no idea his grin still had that effect on women. Showed how out of touch with the dating game he was. “Shall we?”

“I guess,” Darcy said with a small smile. The three of them went inside Stark Tower's doors and then headed to the private elevator. Jane keyed in Thor’s code and he waited with them. He looked at her phone in Darcy's hand and motioned for her to hit the floor under the penthouse when they piled in. “That’s Stark’s lab, right?”

He nodded. “Someone there should be able to take a look at your phone. If Stark isn’t there, Parker or Banner could be. I’d put my money on Parker being able to make quick work of it over Banner, but the three of them and Parker’s friends spend tons of time in the lab.”

“So you really live here?” Darcy asked.

He nodded. “I’m kind of on parole.”

“Bad boy,” she said.

“You could say that, though it wasn’t my fault.” He stuck his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans and saw her eyes go wide at the sight of his metal arm. “I’m known as the Winter Soldier.”

“Oh! You’re Steve’s friend from the past!” Jane said.

Bucky nodded. “Yeah.”

“Oh, Thor’s talked about you. He likes you a lot,” she said with a smile. “I think you’re going to have a good time, Darcy. Bucky is supposed to be a good cook.”

“Is he?” she asked, looking up at him. “At least my day is improving a bit.” He turned his grin from Jane to Darcy again and relaxed when Darcy gave him a wider grin back. He had the feeling next time he talked to Shuri, there was going to be a lot to talk about...


End file.
